I was offered a job for a large company as a technical support <something> (specialist or consultant or whatever) and before I accepted the job I wanted to see the routines of that company for handleing end user questions.

(
Who?
<hint>
The company is HUGE!
They make computers.
They are not compatible, they are the real deal.
</hint>
)

I don't buy ANY of their stuff anymore. Ever.
I sure as hell don't work there.

My experiance is: The larger the company, the less their frontline knows about their base products.

In small companies (50 employees MAX!) they can't afford one techie and one phone support dude, they need someone to be both.

Shop at small computer stores. always.
Subscibe to small ISP's. always.